Microsoft Continues to Go Live

At the Microsoft SharePoint Conference in

Seattle

(which we’re attending together with some 4,000 customers, partners, analysts and press), Microsoft is announcing a broadening of the availability of its products in the on line environment. 

Last fall, Microsoft entered the enterprise SaaS environment with Exchange and SharePoint offerings to companies with more than 5,000 employees.  It is now offering these products and others to businesses of any size, available in the 2^nd half of 2008, with a beta starting now. 

This takes Microsoft’s on line offerings much more directly into the heart of its target audience, an indication that Microsoft no longer believes that it can compete with Web 2.0 vendors with on line offerings without an Internet-based offering of its own.  Of course, compared to a group offering like Google’s Site, announced last week, Microsoft’s more mature offerings look much more polished and feature rich.  Microsoft will attempt to also give them the flexibility of Web 2.0 style applications with its SilverLight application development environment, available for download now.

Pricing (and reseller arrangements) have not yet been announced and appear to be still under discussion.  That’s not surprising given that Microsoft has the tricky job of making the Live offering look competitive against Web 2.0 offerings without disturbing its existing customer revenue very much.  Given that many Web 2.0 offerings are “free,” with revenues based on advertising, Microsoft will have to convince Live customers that superior, more richly featured and refined products, with support, are worth more money.

In that context, Bill Gates comment, in answer to a question from the floor during his keynote yesterday, makes Microsoft’s position clearer.  “For most of these Google products, the day they announce them is their best day.”

Now we will see, I suspect, whether what customers want is good enough (at free or a very low price) or better (some would say much better) at a higher price.

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